As God had instructed, Moses threw down his staff and it turned into a snake. He showed them the miracle of his hand being made leprous and then healed. Moses took water from the Nile river and turned it into blood. Seeing such miracles those who doubted couldn't help but be convinced that God had, indeed, sent these two men to lead His people out of captivity. Then the elders of Israel bowed their heads and worshipped the God of their fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Once they had met with the elders of Israel and told them what God intended to do, Moses and Aaron went to see Pharaoh.

Moses was eighty years old and his brother Aaron was eighty-three when they went in to see Pharaoh, the ruler of the great Egyptian empire.

"We bring a message from YHVH, the God of Israel," Aaron told the Egyptian leader. "He says, 'Let My people go three days into the wilderness where they will worship Me'."

"Who is your God to me?" Pharaoh asked with contempt. "I don't know your God, and I certainly won't let my slaves go in order to worship Him."

"The God of the Hebrews has told us that we must go into the wilderness and sacrifice there to Him." Aaron insisted.

Angry that the two men had dared to ask for time off for the slaves, Pharaoh ordered Moses and Aaron be thrown out of the court. Then he issued orders that the Israelites were to work harder than ever. No longer would they be given the straw that they mixed with the mud to make bricks, now they must go and gather straw for themselves. Yet Pharaoh insisted that the slaves produce the same amount of bricks as before this extra work was required of them.

Following his orders the taskmasters told the Hebrews that they were now required go out into the fields and gather the straw for themselves and they had to make the same number of bricks as when the straw was given to them or they would be beaten for their failure to perform their tasks.

When the elders went to Pharaoh to protest such treatment Pharaoh told them, "You are lazy! You want time off to go and worship your God just so you can get out of work. Go back to your tasks and see that they are performed!"

Moses and Aaron stood outside waiting to hear what Pharaoh would say to the elders. When the elders came out they grumbled, "You have only made matters worse. Now we will all die because of you and your request. God judge you because you have made us to be hated all the more in Pharaoh's sight. You might as well have put a sword in his hand, for he will now use this as an excuse to work us to death."

God had explained to Moses that He was going to harden Pharaoh's heart that it would be after many mighty signs that Pharaoh would at last let Israel go free. But Moses hadn't understood. Discouraged he called upon God. "Why have you treated this people so badly?" he asked. "And why have you sent me here? For ever since I came Pharaoh has done evil to this people, and you haven't delivered them at all!"

Moses told the elders of Israel what God had spoken to him, but they were so discouraged and worn down by their harsh treatment that they didn't listen to him, nor believe him.

Then God told Moses, "Go talk to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and tell him he must let My people go."

"My own people won't listen to me," Moses complained, "Why should a man who doesn't believe in You listen to me?"

"I've given you and your brother a job to do," God insisted. "You must go before Pharaoh and after many signs and wonders you will bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt. In Pharaoh's sight you will be as a god, and your brother Aaron a prophet. Pharaoh's heart will be hardened. He will not easily let the children of Israel go. In this way I will be able to show many signs and wonders to those who live in Egypt. Then they shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out my hand upon Egypt and bring My children out from among the Egyptians."

Moses and Aaron did as God commanded and went in to see Pharaoh. And Aaron cast down his rod in front of the king, and it became a snake.

Pharaoh then called for his sorcerers and magicians and they too changed rods into snakes. But Aaron's snake swallowed up their rods.

Pharaoh was unimpressed and refused to let the people of Israel go.

God explained to Moses, "Pharaoh's heart is hardened. In the morning as he goes out to bathe in the river Nile, I want you to be waiting for him. Stand by the river's edge and take with you the rod that was turned into a snake. And you will say to him, 'The Lord God of the Hebrews has sent me to you, saying "Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness."'

The two men did as God commanded, but Pharaoh refused to let the people of Israel go, so Moses told him, "So says the Lord, 'So that you will know that I am the Lord,' with this rod which is in my hand I will strike the river and it will be turned to blood and the fish that are in the river will die. The river, which you worship as a god, will stink and the Egyptians will find it revolting to drink the water."